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150 Years of Croatians in New Zealand

From the end of the 19th century, men from the Dalmatian coast of Croatia started arriving in NZ looking for work. Many ended up in the Northland's gum fields. Pakeha society wasn't particularly welcoming to the new immigrants, particularly during WWII - they were considered Austrians. Not so in the small Maori communities of the north. Here they found an echo of Dalmatian village life, with its emphasis on extended family and hospitality, not to mention a shared history of injustice at the hands of colonial powers.

The Maori jokingly named them Tarara, as their rapid conversation in Croatian sounded like "ta-ra-ra-ra-ra" to the Maori ears. Many Croatian men married local wahine (women), founding clans that have left several of today's famous Maori with Croatian surnames, like singer Margaret Urlich and former All Black Frano Botica. You'll find large Tarara communities in the Far North, Dargaville and West Auckland.&nbsp; Now, 100-years later, ‘Tarara Day’ is held annually in West Auckland.

There are around 2700 Croatians in New Zealand. The majority of these are located primarily in and around Auckland and Northland with small numbers in and around Canterbury and Southland.

History

The earliest Croatian settlers in New Zealand date from the 1860s, largely arriving as sailors, gold miners, prospectors and pioneers. Following this, five significant influxes of Croats have arrived:
* 5000 between 1890 and 1914, prior to World War I.
* 1600 during the 1920s before the onset of the Great Depression.
* 600 in the 1930s, prior to World War II.
* 3200 between 1945 and 1970.
* Arrivals during the 1990s, fleeing the conflict in former Yugoslavia

In July 2008, 800 people attended a celebration of 150 years of Croatian settlement in New Zealand hosted by Prime Minister; Helen Clark and Ethnic Affairs Minister; Chris Carter.

Political beliefs - Many early immigrants to New Zealand hated the Austro-Hungarian empire, and when Dalmatia became part of Yugoslavia they proudly called themselves Yugoslavs. But those who arrived after the Second World War had lived in Yugoslavia and did not share this enthusiasm. As the war atrocities in Yugoslavia mounted during the 1990s, factions developed in the Auckland community. For some, the sight of the Yugoslav flag became offensive.

Kola dancing, performed here at Henderson’s inaugural Tarara Day, is one of the most visible parts of Dalmatian culture. It is a form of circle dance where dancers hold hands or waists and spin around to the music of the tamburica orchestra. In Northland, kola was often performed during the 1960s and 1970s.

From Distant Villages: Lives and times of Croatian settlers in NZ 1858--1958

by Stephen A Jelicich

The following book Review is by Jim Eagles and appeared in the New Zealand Herald on May 28th, 2008

The collective story of New Zealand's Croatian settlers, and the important part they played in the development of the country, has remained largely untold until now.

Stephen A. Jelicich, who was born in the part of Croatia known as Dalmatia and came to New Zealand with his family in 1923 when he was 4, has devoted much of his life to collecting the stories of all the others who made the same journey in search of freedom and prosperity.

But despite that, few of the immigrants returned to Dalmatia and their determination and hard work eventually did create prosperity as they stayed to farm, produce wine, develop orchards, build commercial fishing fleets, run boarding houses and otherwise make new lives for their families.

Turning its pages produces a parade of wonderful anecdotes, of life in the gumfields, breaking in land, planting trees and vines, arguing over the politics of the homeland, building churches, struggling against wartime xenophobia, starting sports clubs and creating communities, often told through the letters or memoirs of the pioneers and illustrated with marvellous snaps from their family albums.

Taken together, these stories do effectively create a picture of the forces which drove so many Dallies to leave home, the struggles which faced them on arrival and the efforts which brought success to most.

Jelicich tells the story of Mijo Brajkovich, who arrived in New Zealand in 1907 to work in the gumfields and in 1944 acquired a rundown block of land in Kumeu where he planted grapes, creating the winery where my father bought his sherry, today the widely respected Kumeu River Wines.

The book has the story, too, of the Jurlinas, a family whose members arrived in the Far North from 1896 to go gumdigging, opened a general store and gumtrading operation, and gradually acquired the land where we used to go on holiday.

There isn't an account of the Posa family, whose cafe was at one time the only eatery on the North Shore which opened at night (hard to believe these days), but the book does tell of many others who used the ancient skills developed over centuries of living on the shores of the Adriatic to earn a living catching, selling and serving fish.

Jelicich says, in his conclusion, that his aim in telling such stories was to make "a personal journey into the history of Croatians in New Zealand ... [to] capture the spirit of those men and women who made the long journey here and plant their families safely and securely within the wider New Zealand community." In that he has certainly succeeded.